Moonrise Kingdom also shares five nominations, including one for director Wes Anderson.

Moonrise Kingdom, a first-love story between a precocious boy and girl who run away together, received a nomination for supporting actor for Bruce Willis.

The films each have directing and screenplay slots for Moonrise Kingdom filmmaker Wes Anderson, who co-wrote the script with Roman Coppola, and Silver Linings Playbook filmmaker David O Russell. Moonrise Kingdom also was nominated for cinematography.

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Matthew McConaughey received two nominations, for best actor in Killer Joe and supporting actor in Magic Mike. Past Academy Award winner Helen Hunt has a supporting-actress nomination for The Sessions. Child star Quvenzhane Wallis, who had never acted before, is nominated for best actress for Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Jack Black is nominated for best actor for his role in black comedy Bernie.

Joining Anderson and Russell in the directing category are Julia Loktev for The Loneliest Planet, Ira Sachs for Keep the Lights On and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won the top prize at last January's Sundance Film Festival.

Though the Spirit Awards honour lower-budgeted film outside the Hollywood mainstream, the nominations often overlap heavily with Oscar contenders. Last season's big Oscar winner, The Artist, also won the top prize at the Spirit Awards, while films such as The Descendants, Beginners and My Week with Marilyn had wins or nominations at both events.

The overlap may be lighter this season, with big-budget studio films such as Les Miserables, Lincoln and Argo shaping as early favourites to dominate the Oscars, whose nominations come out on January 10.

But Silver Linings Playbook, Moonrise Kingdom, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Sessions and other smaller films have solid prospects in some Oscar categories.

Presented by the cinema group Film Independent, the Spirit Awards will be handed out at an afternoon ceremony along the beach in Santa Monica, California, on February 23, the day before the Oscars.

Nominees are chosen by panels of film professionals, which gauge contenders on such criteria as uniqueness of vision; original, provocative subject matter; how economically they were produced; and percentage of financing from independent, non-Hollywood sources.

Eligible films typically range from tiny-budgeted movies shot for $US500,000 ($A480,977) or less to productions that cost as much as $US20 million.

Members of Film Independent, who include filmmakers and movie fans, are eligible to vote on the winners.